I couldn't find a thread to put this in but I wanted to brag on my daughter's high school marching band and thought it was a good opportunity to have a thread for others to brag on their kids.

This is my daughters first year in high school and she joined the marching band. You have to understand she didn't just join any marching band but her high school (Chopticon HS in St Mary's county) was the reigning USBands division 2A National Champions and has won the Mid-Atlantic State Championship for Md every year since 2009. This year USBands told the school that they really should be in a higher division (2 Open) and they thought they would be competitive, but “they wouldn’t be able to compete with the big boys”.

Well this year all Chopticon did was go out and win every competition they entered prior to the State Championship. In fact they had the highest score, regardless of class, in their final 3 competitions! Because they were told they wouldn’t be able “to compete with the big boys” they weren’t planning on competing at Nationals, but as the season progressed it was clear they should try. The problem was for division 2 Open, Nationals and the Mid-Atlantic States Championship was on the same day. This was only the case for 2 Open and only for the Mid-Atlantic state teams.

So last Friday they traveled to NJ to compete at USBands National competition in Met Life Stadium (yes, the home of the Giants, Jets and the site of this year’s SB) on Saturday. The team competed early Saturday afternoon (12:40), ran off the field, packed up and hauled tail for Annapolis to compete at Mid-Atlantics States competition early that same night (~6:40pm).

I would love to say they won both a National and State Championship in the same day, however they finished 3rd at Nationals, but they did win their fifth consecutive State Championship (the first in the higher 2 Open class)! There was only one Virginia band in the 2 open division at States and all the Maryland teams finished ahead of them.

I would like to congratulate Mr. Todd Burroughs, the Chopitcon Marching band coordinator; all the band booster and pit crew parents; but most of all the incredible boys and girls that represented southern Md with pride! And when it was all said and done we had seniors that won a state championship every year they were in high school plus a National championship the final year in 2A division and finished 3rd at the National level the first year in the higher 2 Open division.

I would say that qualifies as “competing with the big boys!”P.S. - I was one of the pit crew parents and it was extremely cool to be on the same field that the Superbowl will be played on this year. Also, that stadium has the upper decks just looming over the field. I have some shots if anyone wants to see.

"Dovie'andi se tovya sagain"
(It is time to roll the dice) Tai'shar Manetheren

"Duty is heavier than a Mountain, Death is lighter than a feather" Tai'shar Malkier

ok so my son is eight years old and he loves basketball he has been through some summer camps and "upward basketball" and this year will be his first organized team sport .... he is left handed and loves to play defense what im proud of most is that he really wants to be good at basketball. we work on everything from defense to drbbling and he never wants to stop .... he plays mostly the 1 or 2 ..... his first game isnt til after christmas so he is ready to get on the court ..... well that it for now .... will post some pictures when he begins league play.

skinsfan#33 wrote:I couldn't find a thread to put this in but I wanted to brag on my daughter's high school marching band and thought it was a good opportunity to have a thread for others to brag on their kids.

Congrats, skinsfan#33!

As for me, my oldest daughter graduated from Duke last year with a double major in mathematics and French. She graduated with distinction and won an award for the best paper written in a foreign language. She's in France this year on a Duke program teaching English in a French High School. In the fall, she's going to Berkley to start working on her PhD in French. She wants to be a French professor. She got a free ride for at least 5 years, which includes free tuition, free healthcare and a stipend that is plenty to live on so she'll have no debt when she graduates. I paid for her Duke degree, so she has no undergraduate debt either.

I have two girls, the younger one just graduated from High School a semester early, so she's going to the local community college. Not sure where she'll end up yet. She's every bit as smart as her sister, but not as driven in academics so we'll see how that one turns out. She did win awards for piano and a county wide writing competition in high school.

Groucho: Man does not control his own fate. The women in his life do that for him

Proverb: Failure is not falling down. Failure is not getting up again

Twain: A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way

Countertrey wrote:LPJ... Does it count if I send them money a couple of times a year?

YES YES OF COURSE !!!!!!!!

Not all of us have the privilege of seeing them throughout the year so if you can HELP them in any way, that's a major plus in my book !!!

I'm happy that PG County's "lotto" system for school has helped my eldest. She gets to go to a TAG school instead of her nearest school (which has major issues) so I'm very relieved as she's going into 6th grade in September.

Anyways, I'm rambling.. God bless you parents, its not an easy job.. and keep bragging, you earned it !!!!

ok my son is 9 .... in 4th grade bringing home all As and 1B ..... he is also a solid basketball player ... averaging 6pts 3 rebs 2 blks 3 ass per game can dribble with both hands and loves to play defense .... he hasn't jumped on the skins bandwagon yet .... told you he is smart LOL i could go on for days about my son .... im honored to be his father !!!!!

skinsfan#33 wrote:I couldn't find a thread to put this in but I wanted to brag on my daughter's high school marching band and thought it was a good opportunity to have a thread for others to brag on their kids.

Congrats, skinsfan#33!

As for me, my oldest daughter graduated from Duke last year with a double major in mathematics and French. She graduated with distinction and won an award for the best paper written in a foreign language. She's in France this year on a Duke program teaching English in a French High School. In the fall, she's going to Berkley to start working on her PhD in French. She wants to be a French professor. She got a free ride for at least 5 years, which includes free tuition, free healthcare and a stipend that is plenty to live on so she'll have no debt when she graduates. I paid for her Duke degree, so she has no undergraduate debt either.

I have two girls, the younger one just graduated from High School a semester early, so she's going to the local community college. Not sure where she'll end up yet. She's every bit as smart as her sister, but not as driven in academics so we'll see how that one turns out. She did win awards for piano and a county wide writing competition in high school.

Congratulations! An impressive kid: wants a PhD and wants to teach French...wow! By the way, my immediate boss at GE Information Services was a music major at NYU and then a jazz guitar player for about ten years, Got tired of gigging around the country and became a programmer. Music indicates capacity, and, my oh my: anyone who can write coherent and understandable prose is far ahead of narrow-gauge techies.

(1) My son, Redskin Dan v1978, completed his Army "contract" in 2009 after one deployment. Started and finished college in three years while helping to raise grandson number one. Now in a low-paid job investigating reports of child neglect and abuse...mostly neglect. As a friend -- a New Police detective -- put it of his wife and my wife, both low-paid social workers, and Redskin Dan, "They are doing the Lord's work". Now back in school for a masters in counselling. First Daughter-in-law completed her contract in 2008. Missed her second deployment because she was pregnant with grandson number one and then because Dan was deployed. (An Army provision: a married couple can choose to be deployed at the same time, which can be ugly if they have kids, or deployed separately). Son still knows the NFL and the Redskins inside out. Although he gets disgusted, his hopes revive whenever the Redskins do anything positive. We hope the new GM will be allowed to do his job.

(2) Daughter has full-time and permanent job doing communications for a union that attempts to improve working conditions for interns and residents. That is, bargains to reduce hours to no more than 24 hours straight (rather than 48 or 72) and to get payment or housing that allows the young doctors to live near enough to their hospital that they can get get there in 15 minutes or less.

(3) Oldest grandson is a Redskins and Caps fan. His first full sentence was "Goal, Ovie!" I'm trying to subvert him into a Nats fan, as well. Incidemntally, he was born at Darnall, the base hospital at Ft Hood. He likes to tease his parents by saying "I'm really a Texan". Love the grand-children. The two oldest are each smart and each different. Oldest is a skilled soccer player, and wakes up early to read. Middle is amazingly articulate for a not-yet-four-year old. I took him to the county library, where a child had a melt-down at the Thomas the Train set-up. Mother said, "If you don;t behave, I'm going to leave you here". Walked out...though, of course, came back in five minutes to gather up her hysterical kid. Second-grandson, then three, said, "Parents should do that".